This month we are going to seem to be a little indulgent. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a technophile and I have discriminating taste in some things. From Swiss mechanical watches to hand stitched leathers and fine custom suits. I don't have many expensive things but when I buy some things, I buy to them to last. I dearly appreciate the combinataion of style, function and reliability. Let's face all the junk that I saved a couple of bucks on is sitting in a landfill somewhere.
So we are shopping for a coffee maker to adorn the counter in our Lawrence Park kitchen. The utiliarian one sitting on the counter does a perfectly adequate job of heating water and dripping it through the filter. On Sunday's we indulge in a karaff from our Espro Press. Summer is upon us and we are starting to entertain more. We started our search for something to brew the various after dinner coffees that would be both functional and fit with our stainless steele appliances.
We took several machines for a test drive and found that there are a lot of things to look for:
How does it work?
Is it easy to clean?
Will I need to be a barista to make a coffee?
How does it look?
and above all is it good value.
How Does it work?
From the autotamping technology to the "Smart Steam Wand" it's incredible. We found the qualtiy of the output was remarkable consistent and the foam was cafe qaualty. The Bright LED Panel made reading easy even without my reading glasses on.
Is it easy to clean?
In a word, Yes, or as easy as it can be with this many parts. We were able to quickly get to all of the areas that need a thorough going over without the fear of some unreachable nooks that exist in some lower prices machines in this category.
Do I need to be a barista to make it work?
Not really, but if I was a barista I could make it dance. It's like an SLR camera it does what you want and if your an artist you can do a lot. I found that the instructions were easy to follow, the handles and buttons are clearly marked and the order of operations was intuive. The steam from the wand was consistent and predictable without sputters or splashes.
How does it look?
It's a really nice looking machine, elegant a bit high tech with a simple clean design. I have to say there are some beautiful machines out there. The Oracle is a mid end Mercedes not a Ferrrari in terms of design. This machine has what I like to refer to as a great "budget to design ratio".
Budget
Ok, at this point, refer to the first paragraph, The Oracle cost north of $2,000. When you consider that the lower end of the high end machines is $1,500 and the high end is above $7,000 the Oracle is that luxury item the has more value than cost.
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Posted on: 2014-05-12 12:00 AM 
